Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Season 5 of The Voice begins Monday night at 8 p.m. on NBC. Check back for live blogs during each show and for bios of contestants who land a spot in the competition.

Meanwhile, it’s time to catch up with some familiar faces from past seasons, with the focus on those who have released music recently. Collin McLoughlin, of Bedford, N.Y., was 24 when he auditioned for Season 3 of The Voice.

Before The Voice: Collin was a student in NYU’s music business master’s degree program when he decided he’d rather make music than work in the business side of the music industry. By that point he had already released a five-song EP in 2007 and a four-song EP in 2011 and amassed a solid following on YouTube.

On The Voice: Collin auditioned with “Wild World,” prompting all three male judges to turn their chairs. Adam called him “one of the purest singers we’ve heard on the show.” So it wasn’t surprising when he decided to become a member of Team Adam. He lost his battle round match to Bryan Keith, became the first-ever recipient of a Voice save thanks to Blake Shelton, but then lost to charismatic teen Michaela Paige in the knockout round.

Since The Voice: Collin released a trio of covers to iTunes last spring — “Mirrors,” “That Power” and a very nice version of Rihanna’s “Stay.” He’s since followed that up with another EP, a six-track effort called “Tears of Tempo.” Check out the video for lead track “Chasing Ghosts” below. Collin, who also DJs, classifies his genre on Facebook as “melodic dubstep, progressive, electro.” “I want to thank you all for supporting my new music,” he writes on Facebook. “It’s great to see you guys enjoying something I put so much time and effort into making … Let’s spread this music as far as we can.”

Keeping up with Collin: On Twitter, he is @McLoughlinMusic. Here are links to his website, YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Collin McLoughlin, “Chasing Ghosts”